In a world first, a
US-based company
has been granted permission to travel beyond Earth’s orbit into deep space.
Moon Express, founded in 2010 by billionaire tech entrepreneur Naveen Jain, just
received FAA clearance to send a robotic probe to the moon’s surface to scout it
for valuable resources.

If successful, Moon Express could pave a path for other companies to begin
tapping the moon for iron ore, water, rare earths and precious metals, with the
goal of turning Earth’s nearest neighbor into a way station for spare parts and
rocket fuel. As Moon Express notes on its
website,
water is “the oil of the solar system,” and the ability to access this vital
resource off Earth would
vastly reduce the cost of more ambitious deep space missions.

Whether more private ventures will soon receive clearance to fulfill their
space mining dreams may hinge on the success of Moon Express, which stands to
receive $20 million from Google’s Lunar XPRIZE competition if it can carry out
its mission, of landing a spacecraft on the moon and beaming photos and video
back to Earth.

Moon Express hopes to become the first private company to land on the Moon in
late 2017.